Reuse of carboplatin and paclitaxel in patients with relapsed endometrial cancer--the British Columbia Cancer Agency experience.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of reusing carboplatin and taxol in women with relapsed endometrial cancer.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of our database of newly diagnosed high-risk patients with endometrial cancer treated with carboplatin-paclitaxel at diagnosis, with subsequent relapse for the period of 1995-2007.

Results: 111 patients of 200 relapsed. They had either endometroid or papillary serous histologies. Strategies utilized upon first relapse were: no treatment (n=33), surgery (n=4), hormones (n=8), irradiation (n=14) and chemotherapy (n=52). Carboplatin and paclitaxel was reused in 31 (60% of 52 retreated with chemotherapy or 29% of the total cohort of 111). There was no statistically significant difference in stage at diagnosis or grade at diagnosis between those retreated with chemotherapy or not or with carboplatin-paclitaxel versus another regimen. The patients retreated were a selected subgroup as only those with initial response or treated adjuvantly were offered carboplatin-paclitaxel. CR or PR were achieved in 8 (42%) patients with endometroid type cancer. In the papillary serous group 6 (50%) had CR or PR. Median PFS from first relapse was 8 months for endometroid and 9 months for papillary serous histology. OS was 15 months and 26 months respectively from first relapse.

Conclusion: Carboplatin-taxol regimen is an efficacious treatment. Due to the patient selection these outcomes reported are likely to be an overstatement of what could be achieved in practice.